


Clickety-Clack

by DarcSarc (Sarosia)



Series: Little Bits [4]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Arkansas - Freeform, Folklore, Horror, Rural, Short Story, arkansas folklore, gowrow, myth, shorty short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-24 23:15:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22006051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarosia/pseuds/DarcSarc
Summary: "I wan' see it." Another man, introduced himself as Mickey, said. "Ain't real if you don' show it."--------------------------------------Wilson knew he could get these bumpkins to believe in the Clickety-Clack enough to get their money. Wilson's lack of belief, though, that was the dangerous part.**Again, I apologize for shitty summaries**
Series: Little Bits [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1576819





	Clickety-Clack

"...and I got that sumbitch! Shoulda known better, the dummy." Wilson said. He'd been laughing the better part of an hour while the good citizens of Nowhere, Arkansas kept the drinks flowing in exchange for every detail he could give them.

  
  


"I don't believe it," a man calling himself Boogie said. "Clickety-Clack ain't real, so you can't catch one."

  
  


Wilson pointed at his head. "When you got brains, anything's possible. If you can't outsmart a dumb animal, then you can't really call yourself a person, can ya?"

  
  


"I wan' see it." Another man, introduced himself as Mickey, said. "Ain't real if you don' show it."

  
  


"He's right. I'd be wearin' that skin around everywhere!" Boogie added. “Make me some boots. Maybe a hat...”

  
  


"Well, I didn't _kill_ it. That would be more dumb than the Clickety-Clack was." Wilson huffed out another laugh, raising a glass to his lips. "I trapped the sumbitch and you can all see it. For a price."

  
  


The whole backwoods bar erupted in laughter. Boogie said, "There it is! There it is! You're gon' take us out to an empty hole and - "

  
  


"Oh, it's gon' be a hole...but it ain't empty. I fattened that sumbitch up and he's stuck _good_."

  
  


"How much?" Another man asked. Wilson hadn't caught this one's name, yet.

  
  


Wilson made a big show of debating the amounts he could ask for a single sight of a 'Clickety-Clack.' Deciding to see how far his luck would go, Wilson said, "A quarter. Each."

  
  


Wilson's audience glanced at each other. Boogie was the first to speak, "All right. I wanna see this Clickety-Clack in person."

  
  


Others followed suit and Wilson imagined the haul he'd have by the end of the night. He locked eyes with Harv standing in the back of the bar and nodded. Harv kept his mouth shut and slipped away while Wilson told them where to meet.

  
  


###

  
  


"You've got everything ready?" Wilson asked when they met up later. Harv nodded and Wilson realized that he hadn't heard Harv's voice at all today. Normally, the man was all talk all the time. Constant jabbering. "Are you feeling okay?"

  
  


Another nod. Ah, well, Wilson would take this vacation from his mouth in stride. He'll be going on and on when they split the take later, anyway. These dumb hicks were so _easy_. Wilson couldn't wipe the grin off his face. Tonight, the Clickety-Clack escapes the 'trap' and he makes off with a bag of coins.

  
  


So easy.

  
  


###

  
  


"Of _course_ it's in the woods." Wilson said. "If it wasn't, everyone'd know what a Clickety-Clack looks like. But they don't."

  
  


"Yeah, 'cause it ain't real." Boogie laughed. "And I'm getting my twenty-five back when we don't see it."

  
  


Wilson gave him a big grin. They'd already paid and he was going to give them all a story to tell their inevitably inbred grandkids about. Probably get on the front page of the Nowhere news tomorrow. At least, his disappearance definitely will. "Oh, don't you worry about that. The Clickety-Clack is _somethin_ '."

  
  


Wilson stopped dead on his mark like a real showman. He threw his arms out to stop the others. "Shit, you hear that?"

  
  


"What?" Boogie said too loud and Wilson shushed him.

  
  


There was a rustling off to the side. Something moving in the bushes. Wilson moaned, "Oh, no...nonono."

  
  


They waited in silence, but the woods had gone still again. "Shit, don't be scared...I just gotta...gotta..."

  
  


"Ain't nothin' to be scared about." Boogie said and the others laughed along with him.

  
  


Wilson whirled around on him. "Now you listen to me: this is some serious shit. My cousin..." Wilson choked up, "my cousin's little girl was taken by one of these bastards. If it got out, we're _all_ in some deep shit."

  
  


Boogie took a step back from him. Wilson could sell serious to a clown. Which was kinda what this job was all about. Make the local bumpkins scared, get them the hell out of here, and move on, leaving a mystery and a bedtime story. Easy peasy, lemon squeeze-my-dick.

  
  


The bushes right along the side of this trail broke into a furious dance. The locals jumped away from it and the scene was set.

  
  


"All right...all right." Wilson said. "The hole's just up ahead. I'm gonna go check on it. You guys wait here, it's probably just a deer or something in the trees."

  
  


Wilson got one step under him and the ground caved in. He fell into a darkness where dirt clogged every one of his senses. When he landed, Wilson tried to scream, but all he could do was cough and spit earth.

  
  


The silence returned and Wilson was able to breathe again. He rolled over onto his back. Far above, he could see trees and stars. And the men he'd walked into the woods.

  
  


"Aw, _shit_ , you need help there, buddy?" Boogie called down. A strangeness had filtered into his voice now. A sound that made Wilson think of a million tiny legs clicking off each other.

  
  


"Get me out of here!" Wilson's accent slipped in the middle of his new panic.

  
  


"You like tellin' lies, Mr. Wilson?" Mickey, now, leaning into sight. "I wanna commend you on the balls you got comin' into _our_ town. Droppin' your lies everywhere."

  
  


"Makin' fun o' us." Boogie added with a laugh that was not human. The clicking in it sent chills over Wilson's shoulders and down his back. "We ain't the dumb ones you said we was, Mister."

  
  


Wilson heard footsteps up above. He crawled to the wall of the hole and his hand landed on something that wasn't dirt. With touch alone, Wilson made out what he thought could be a human face. Wilson jerked back at the same moment a torch was dropped into the dirt at his knees.

  
  


The face under his hand belonged to Harv. His head had been snipped off at the neck and was now lying a foot away from its body. Knowing what he would see, Wilson looked up.

  
  


Harv was the newcomer at the hole above. All day, _all day_ , Wilson hadn't heard him say one word. Was it because he - or the thing parading itself as him - still needed to learn to talk? Harv opened his mouth.

  
  


_Clickety-Clack_

**Author's Note:**

> This is loosely based on the Arkansas story of the Gowrow. 
> 
> Kudo, Comment, and Subscribe to never miss an update on any of my content and I'll see you in the next one. Or over on Twitter(@DarcSarc)
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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